Thousand-year-old Sabbath songs (zmirot, not Ozzy), Hebrew- and Aramaic-language vocals, and Kabalistic poetry — exactly what comes to mind when you think hip downtown band, right? On their fifth album, the ancient, worldly Judaica that’s inspired the NYC-based Pharaoh’s Daughter blends better than ever with the secular modernism of the indie world. Crisp, pinpoint rhythms, rumbling, insistent bass, and Fillmore-era organ lines flirt with Eastern oud, santur, and kamanche as the reverent gets along famously with the edgy. Front and center is Basya Schechter, the group’s beguiling, much-traveled vocalist, whose malleable, often multi-tracked vocals take flight amid the airtight, shape-shifting ensemble playing. Schechter captivates, whether she’s singing nigun (wordlessly), as on “By Way of Haran,” or retelling the tale of “Hagar” (Biblical, not Sammy). Overt West African and Arabic melodic and harmonic principles inform, respectively, “Askinu,” with its jewel-like kora, and the Ladino folk of “Ven Hermosa.” But the wild jam-band takeoff of “Enpesare,” with its runaway drums and accordion/bass duel, is no less comfortable or unexpected within Pharaoh’s Daughter’s divine communion of the spiritual and the terrestrial.

NEW YORK DOLLS | DANCING BACKWARDS IN HIGH HEELS | March 17, 2011 The new New York Dolls have now been around longer - and released more albums (three) - than the old New York Dolls, and they're commemorating that new longevity by letting go of any compulsion they may have still harbored to honor their designation as "punk-rock progenitors."

BRYAN FERRY | OLYMPIA | October 19, 2010 From the Kate Moss cover pic to the A-list of guest stars to the reunion with original Roxy Music members Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera, and Andy Mackay, Olympia screams, "EVENT!"

OLD 97'S | THE GRAND THEATRE | October 12, 2010 When Old 97's are on — which they are most of the time on their eighth studio album — they're very, very on.